For Saying That

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Ordinary 23B

Text: Mark 7:24-37

Theme: God’s surprising movement in the world

“²⁴ From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵ but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syro-phoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴ Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Rascal was an outside dog. Both our pet dogs growing up were outside pets. So we really didn’t have to deal with the ‘puppy dog eyes’ pleading for a morsel of food from our plates unless we ate out on our porch, which we did, but only in the summer months. Rascal was half Pomeranian and half fox terrier mix … with the coloring you would normally associate with Lassie – deep gold, with a white collar and chest. He was small, he probably topped out at 20 pounds in his later years, so he easily fit under the table while we were eating. Not having him in the house was good insofar as it made keeping the house CLEAN easier, but it was not so good in that we kids were never able to build up our immunity TO those puppy-dog pleading eyes… and were thus prone to give in whenever he set to begging at mealtime. And I was the worst when it came to feeding him from my plate.

The image our passage conjures up for us this morning is just that – of a table with children and a dog begging for scraps under the table. But the context in which we find it is not so idyllic … so … “home and hearth”.

To put the passage into a slightly larger context – that of the Gospel according to Mark, at the beginning of chapter 7, Jesus is saying in essence that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover – you can’t go by nationality, religious heritage, or social standing, you have to look beyond the external factors to get to the heart of a person’s TRUE faith – for us, that means we can’t stop at names and addresses, workplaces or family history… then Mark underscores the point by relating the story of Jesus traveling over 80 miles NORTH of Galilee, well into what was DEFINITELY Gentile territory, to begin to interact with folks there.

It almost seems like an afterthought when he says that Jesus ‘entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.’ If you remember, the ‘secret messiah’ is a recurring theme to varying degrees in each of the Gospels, but most notably in Mark. It bears noting that in an age of slow communication, where most people lived out their lives within a radius of just a few miles from their birthplace, Jesus was mobbed nearly a hundred miles away. It would appear that good news travels fast, doesn’t it? And Mark seems to be making the point that no matter what Jesus SAYS to people about keeping his presence or true nature a secret, it just doesn’t work. Some things never change, and telling the latest ‘secret’ is usually at the top of the list – even for first-century pagans in what is today Lebanon.

The interaction between Jesus and the woman who brazenly walks up to him and asks that he heal her daughter is pivotal in the story of Jesus’ ministry. The scene is also found in Matthew, chapter 15, verses 21 through 28. In THAT retelling, the woman goes from being Syro-Phoenician to being Canaanite. It is not a huge difference, but it is noteworthy. The end result is the same – the woman is a gentile, and in Matthew the division between Jews and Gentiles is brought even more to light by the reaction of the disciples to her ‘shouting after them’ – this was no timid woman waiting her turn … she wasn’t even allowed to be in LINE. It speaks to the love she had for her daughter – but they ask Jesus to send her away. Jesus’ answer to the disciples is … silence. He only speaks again when the woman addresses him directly and asks him to heal her daughter. Jesus' response is ... troubling ... he tells her that the children (usually interpreted as the Jews) should be fed first, and the good food shouldn't go to the dogs (the common term for gentiles that Jews had ...) She answers him: Sir, even dogs get the scraps that fall from the table!...the thing is, he uses a diminutive form of the word dog - like 'little dog' - the implication is that he's talking about pets .... which ... puts Jews and Gentiles under the same roof ... which would be pretty revolutionary to a Jewish audience, but would send a clear signal to a gentile audience ... that EVERYONE is to have access to the grace of God.

The way the woman addresses Jesus is also worth reflecting on. In Mark, the word “kurios”, which is found in both passages, is translated ‘Sir’; in Matthew, it is translated ‘Lord’, but it could also be translated ‘Master’. Either way, the significance of a Gentile woman calling Jesus, a Jewish man, ‘Master’ or ‘Lord’, would not have been lost on either audience that received either letter.

This was the truth of the Gospel coming from the lips of a pagan woman, who had no standing, who could not ask Jesus to heal her daughter because her ancestors had obeyed God and followed Moses out of Egypt… or had spent the last several centuries protecting the books of the law and the prophets, or anything like that.

Her only recourse, her only plea, was to Jesus’ good graces, and his kindness. It speaks to her desperation in seeking help for her daughter, that she would ignore culturally established boundaries, and risked being thrown out of the house without so much as a please and thank you.

And THAT is where we connect with this story. We all come to Jesus in a desperate state, with nothing to stand on, with no ‘in’ to hang on to, to throw up to Jesus and say, “There, because of THAT, you need to count me in!” All we have to offer him is our surrender, our lives, our faith, and our hope. And that was all SHE had, her faith that he would heal her daughter.

But the text continues, Jesus returns to Decapolis by leaving Sidon and heading NORTH again, to Tyre, and then from there, south … a lengthy trip by any means, especially by foot. And Mark presents us with another miraculous healing – this time of a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. It is fascinating to me that in the healing, Jesus doesn’t say ‘be healed’, or ‘be well’, or ‘Hear! Speak!’ … What does he say?

“Be opened” …

It is not only the telling of a miraculous healing, but placed after the conversation with the Gentile woman, this is a message to the Jewish community receiving these letters, to the people of Israel who first received the Covenant that God established through Abraham. Jesus is telling them to be opened to the transformative power of the Gospel, to the Gospel that breaks down walls of separation that we so easily build around us, afraid of what is different and unfamiliar, afraid of those who are not like us, afraid of what that change might imply… is it any wonder that one of the most frequent phrases we hear from God in the Hebrew Scriptures and from Jesus is “be not afraid”?

Our calling, our task as children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, is to be a part of the tearing down of those walls that separate, that create misunderstanding, that breed mistrust, that allow all sorts of lies to fester about ‘the others’ so that we can look into each others faces and see the face of Christ reflected there.

Let’s pray.